Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04COLOMBO321
2004-02-26 11:03:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

Campaigning begins in earnest as nomination

Tags:  PGOV PREL PINS PINR PHUM CE LTTE 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000321 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, INR/NESA, DRL/CRA; NSC FOR E.
MILLARD

PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02-26-14
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS PINR PHUM CE LTTE
SUBJECT: Campaigning begins in earnest as nomination
lists are finalized for April 2 election

Refs: Colombo 309, and previous

(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of
Mission. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000321

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, INR/NESA, DRL/CRA; NSC FOR E.
MILLARD

PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02-26-14
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS PINR PHUM CE LTTE
SUBJECT: Campaigning begins in earnest as nomination
lists are finalized for April 2 election

Refs: Colombo 309, and previous

(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of
Mission. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The proverbial dust has settled on the
nomination process for Sri Lanka's upcoming April 2
parliamentary elections, with nominations closing
February 24. Campaigns by the two major parties have
kicked off as of February 26, and the stage is set for
the fourth national election in less than five years.
Turning to news of the Tigers, the Norwegian Ambassador
told Mission that the group is interested in the
upcoming elections, and seemed calm during his February
25 trip to Kilinochchi in the north. END SUMMARY.

=============================================
Nomination process closes, campaigns kick off
=============================================


2. (C) The nomination process for Sri Lanka's upcoming
April 2 parliamentary election closed on February 24,
with nearly six thousand candidates from around the
country vying for 196 electoral posts. Following the
submission of nomination lists, campaigning has kicked
off in earnest by the two major parties. President
Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is
set to begin their campaign with a large rally on
February 26 in the north-central cultural town of
Anuradhapura. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's United
National Party (UNP) is also poised to begin its
campaign with customary verve, with a rally in Kandy on
February 26, the central city where the UNP
traditionally kicks off its campaigns. (The UNP also
has put up campaign billboards in Colombo with a photo
of the PM and President Bush at the White House.)


3. (C) Nominations were received from 22 electoral
districts, with 24 parties and nearly two hundred
independent groups submitting nominations lists. Sri
Lanka has approximately 13 million voters, and voter
turnout in the past has been around 70 percent.

According to reports, this is the largest number of
candidates fielded in Sri Lanka since the country's
independence in 1948. Out of the 225 total seats in Sri
Lanka's parliament, twenty-nine seats will be filled
later from the "National List," the allotment of which
will be fixed in the days immediately following the
elections, as the allocation of these seats is
determined on the national percentage of votes that each
party wins.

========================
Breakdown of nominations
========================


4. (C) The PM's UNP party nominated 250 candidates.
Notable among the nominations were that of Hindu Affairs
Minister T. Maheswaran, who will be running from Colombo
rather than from his home district of Jaffna in the
north; and the addition to the National List of Navin
Dissanayake from the hill district of Nuwara Eliya, and
son of a former Prime Minister. Mission contacts have
indicated that Dissanayake was placed on the National
List so as to not split support in the Nuwara Eliya
district in the center of the country for the Ceylon
Worker's Congress (CWC),a tea estate Tamil party. Also
on the UNP's National List was Ronnie de Mel, a senior
MP most recently from the President's party, who left
the UPFA on February 21 to rejoin the UNP.


5. (C) For its part, the President's UPFA also
nominated 250 candidates in total, which included 39
individuals from the extremist Marxist Janatha Vimukthi
Peramuna (JVP),211 individuals from the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party (SLFP),several Muslims, and members of
the Buddhist clergy. Notable on the UPFA's National
List is Lakshman Kadirgamar, former Foreign Minister and
a key presidential advisor who President Kumaratunga
named Minister of Information and Media in early
February.


6. (C) Tamil Parties: Thus far, Tamil parties have
nominated 33 candidates in the north and east of the
country. Following attempts by members of the Tamil
United Liberation Front (TULF) to remove the group's
liberal-minded leader V. Anandasangaree and considerable
internal party discord, pro-LTTE members of the TULF
will run under the symbol of the Tamil Federal Party,
while Anandasangaree will run independently under the
TULF banner in the northern district of Jaffna.


7. (C) Muslim and other parties: As previously
reported, four Muslim MPs from the Sri Lanka Muslim
Congress (SLMC) signed an agreement to support the
President's party on February 22. In reaction to this
move, Rauf Hakeem, head of the SLMC, signed an agreement
with the UNP stating that the SLMC would support the
PM's party in certain districts -- thus, the SLMC's
nominations are rolled into the UNP's slate of nominees,
except in Ampara District in the east, where Hakeem will
be running under the SLMC banner. The SLMC also
nominated 23 individuals to its National List. In
developments regarding other parties, the extremist
Sinhalese Buddhist Janatha Hela Urumaya (JHU) nominated
a slate made up entirely of Buddhist clergy, a move that
has drawn considerable criticism, including from
prominent Buddhist monks. Also noteworthy among the
nominations was the Jathika Janatha (National People's
Party),an independent group, which nominated a slate of
23 women in the Colombo District.

===========================
Tiger interest in elections
===========================


8. (C) Turning to news of the Tigers, Norwegian
Ambassador Brattskar met with Tiger political leader
S.P. Thamilchelvam on February 25, and called the DCM
later that day to provide a readout of the meeting.
Brattskar noted that the atmosphere in the northern town
of Kilinochchi was "serene and calm." Brattskar said he
had briefed the LTTE leadership on the co-chairs meeting
in Washington, and noted that Thamilchelvam was "in
listening mode" during Brattskar's briefing. Brattskar
also briefed the Tiger political chief on a World Bank-
proposed mechanism for reconstruction aid to the
north/east in which the LTTE, NGOs and the GSL could
each put up development proposals to a World Bank
Secretariat. Brattskar said Thamilchelvam listened

SIPDIS
carefully to the proposal, asked a few questions and
said he would seek guidance from Tiger leadership.


9. (C) Thamilchelvam spoke at length about how the
aspirations of the Tamil people should be "respected" in
the coming election and told Brattskar that the LTTE
would not hinder Tamils in their areas from voting, but
was non-committal on whether elections could take place
in LTTE-held territory. Thamilchelvam expressed concern
that the GSL would not let Tamils cross out of LTTE
areas to vote. Brattskar told Thamilchelvam he had seen
no sign that this will happen (we agree, although there
have been a few muddled press reports suggesting that it
might). Brattskar commented to DCM that the LTTE
interest in playing a role in the elections through the
TNA is a positive sign and should be encouraged as part
of an effort to make the LTTE see that peaceful
political change is possible. Brattskar said the LTTE
is "saying and doing the right things in the runup to
the elections" which he finds "quite encouraging."

10. (C) COMMENT: With the nominations lists having
been filed, the campaigning has begun in earnest. In an
Unfortunately, reports continue to filter in of
additional incidents of election-related violence.
The Tigers seem to be interested in being involved in
the political campaign in an open manner, and, on the
whole, have been relatively quiet of late. END COMMENT.


11. (U) Minimize considered.

LUNSTEAD